Author Archives: David

India joins China clamping down on Bitcoins.

Bitcoin is feeling the pinch in another BRIC. BRIC is a common acronym used to refer to the emerging global markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China. While Bitcoins have taken hold in Brazil and Russia, this is mot the case in the IC of BRIC. China and India have recently cracked down on the cyrpto-currency. A few weeks ago China effectively stopped most finance companies in the mainland from dealing in Bitcoins.

This week, the Reserve Bank of India issued a public advisory detailing the risks of using Bitcoin and other digital currencies. India’s central bank statement claimed that Bitcoins have no intrinsic value and “seems to be a matter of speculation.”

Soon after, India’s biggest Bitcoin exchange BuySellBitCo.in suspended most buying and selling operations pending a clearer framework from the Indian regulators. “We are suspending buy and sell operations until we can outline a clearer framework with which to work,” BuySellBitCo.in said on its website, adding that the move was a conservative move to protect the interest of Indian Bitcoin customers.

The central bank stopped short of banning or explicitly curbing Bitcoin transactions. However according to media reports, Indian officials raided the offices of buysellbitco.in and rbitco.in which were trading in Bitcoins for the last three months or so. The Bitcoin market in India is very small and unlike the recent move in China, the recent moves in India have had little or no impact on the larger Bitcoin market.

India might be important for Bitcoin in a few years, it has almost no impact in 2014. The statements from the Indian central bank sound like what everyone says about Bitcoin the first week they learn about it. “used for crime, no intrinsic value, no transparency” give them a few months to figure it out.

What is Dogecoin

Dogecoin is an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, favored by Shiba Inus worldwide. This Ecoin is gaining popularity quickly especially on popular forums like Reddit. It was born and made for the Internet and is based on a popular ‘doge’ internet phenomenon and memes often shared on 4chan and Reddit. It is sometimes referred to as it the first currency to be based upon an Internet meme.

Dogecoin has a strong community. Its light-hearted perspective and novelty factor are giving it strength as an Altcoin. Dogecoin recently ascended over 300% in value.

Compared to other Altcoins, the resources for Dogecoin look and feel developed and refined. The official blockchain referred to as the DogeChain is easy to read and elegantly presented. Check out the big ol’ list of dogecoin resources for more examples.

Like Litecoin, Dogecoin uses scrypt in its proof-of-work algorithm and therefore can only currently be mined with GPU miners. There will be a lot of Dogecoin produced (100 billion) from mining compared to 84 million minable Litecoins and 21 million minable Bitcoins.

Protoshares is an Ecoin that is directly tied to the value of the work being performed by the computers in the peer to peer network. Computers that are mining for the Ecoin and processing transactions for the Ecoin are entitled to a proportional amount of the value derived from these activities. Protoshares are actually the precursor to Bitshares which will be the ‘stock’ in a Distributed Autonomous Corporation (DAC). The DAC is a peer to peer cloud computing company that in a sense is for hire. The owners of the DAC are the holders of the Ecoin associated with the DAC. For this initial DAC, the company that is launching it, is trading Protoshares for other Ecoins to provide seed capital to build the DAC. The initial DAC is being developed by a company called Invictus Innovations Incorporated.

The DAC is conceived to be be a flexible peer to peer network for hire. For most other Ecoins, the mining computers only mine for the Ecoin and/or process transfers of the Ecoin. The vision of the DAC is compensate the holders of the Ecoin proportionally to their coin holding for the mining, processing and other tasks being performed by the network. Anyone may acquire shares in the DAC by mining or trading for Photoshares now and Bitshares later.

Once the company launches the DAC, the Protoshare holders will exchange their Protoshares for shares of the DAC called Bitshares. The value of the Bishares is backed by the processing work of the DAC network computers. Some of these services could include payment processing, asset trading, domain name services (DomainShares), and in the future any service that benefits from peer to peer network computing. It is possible that in the future a DAC could operate like a cloud computing solution like Amazon Web Services and become a very strong wealth generator.

The Chinese citizen’s ability to move cash from banks, payment processors, or exchanges to Bitcoins is almost nonexistent. Anyone in China that wants to buy Bitcoins must purchase Bitcoin from private dealers. The immediate reaction to this news in the exchanges was a dump of almost all Ecoins. Also angry Chinese Bitcoiners were blamed for a hacking into the Central Bank of China. The value of the most popular Ecoins dropped as much as over 50% in a day or so.

Was this a Government move against Bitcoin?

The Central Bank of China tightly controls the Yuan value against the Dollar. China does not want currency to leave the country uncontrolled. Chinese citizens can not freely export currency out of China. This helps China stabilize the value of Yuan against other currencies. Almost all Yuan currency export happens through the Central Bank of China. When 3rd party payment processors were allowed to do Bitcoin transactions it was easy for Chinese citizens to export Yuan out of the country as Bitcoins. If too much Yuan value escaped the country in Bitcoin, the value of Yuan would decrease against the other global currencies.

Clamping down on Yuan to Bitcoin exchanges closes this loophole in China’s long establish currency control policy. From this perspective, the most recent announcement and regulations referring to Bitcoin are not a unilateral move vs. Bitcoin by the Chinese Government. The Chinese Government previously validated Chinese citizen’s right to buy, sell and trade Bitcoins.

While China continues to control it currency there is a general sentiment that China is opening up its markets and currency at a slow and measured pace. As China’s currency becomes liberalized, so to may its regulations around Bitcoin. It is possible that China’s most recent announcements were more about ‘too much, too fast’ than ‘not now and not ever.’

What does this mean for Bitcoins?

A few days after the most recent announcement, the Chinese exodus appears to more a statement on the health of Ecoins than an early sign of their demise. Things seem to have stabilized with Bitcoin price over $650 from a low of under $500.

Before the Chinese got big on Ecoins, the price was substantially lower than current value. Seemingly, global demand outside of China continues to increase. If this trend continues, Bitcoin could return to its historical highs in due course. Over time it is also possible that China will see Bitcoin as an asset rather than a threat.

While the bears hug BTC and LTC today, some Altcoins are getting hooked by the Bull and going for a ride. Here are the most popular Altcoins RIGHT NOW in Ecoin Club community. Please note that the coin exchange rates fluctuate quickly. Click the Coin name to see the most updated information and charts.

11/16/2013 – Popular Altcoins

Devcoins: Devcoin has been trending up since the 12th. After a quick retreat earlier today and yesterday the Decoin shows some bounce back. They are up as much as 8% in the last 24 hours.Goldcoins: Goldcoin trade against BTC and have had a stable ascend since last November. They are up as much as 18% in the last 24 hours.Worldcoins: Worldcoin started rising in late November and have continued to stay up. They are up as much as 35% in the last 24 hours.Diamondcoins: Diamondcoin has been around since July. As recently as November they were at about zero. The market seems to have picked up steam. while it is still well off its highs, they are up as much as 40% in the last 24 hours.

Tomorrow’s Altcoins?

Nobody can predict the future but these Ecoins are showing something that makes us want to get a few.

AmericanCoin: This coin was introduced back in June and it had a very slow and steady decline until a little past Thanksgiving. Then it started to show signs of life and a heartbeat. Since the 8th of December that heartbeat has been getting stronger.

Stablecoin: The name is kind of ironic because in the exchanges, this Ecoin is anything but stable. It has had some big pumps and big dumps. It is exchanging near its 10 day lows and no where near its highs. This Ecoin may still have some dump to go, but we are keeping our eye on it, just in case dump goes to pump.

Protoshares: This Ecoin is the precursor to a Distributed Autonomous Corporation (DAC) which is basically a peer to peer network for hire. Most Ecoins mining computers only mine for the Ecoin and/or process transfers of the Ecoin. The vision of the DAC is to put that computing power to ‘better’ use. Anyone may acquire shares in the DAC by mining or trading for Photoshares. The initial DAC is being developed by a company called Invictus Innovations Incorporated.

Once the company launches the DAC, the Protoshare holders will be able to exchange their Protoshares for shares of the DAC called Bitshares. The value of the Bishares is backed by the processing work of the DAC network computers. Some of these services could include payment processing, asset trading, domain name services (DomainShares), or really any service that benefits from peer to peer network computing – which is just about anything. For example, it is possible that i the future a DAC could operate like a cloud computing solution like Amazon Web Services. As a Bitshare holder, the Bitshare owner is entitled to a dividend for the value of the work performed by the DAC. Most other ecoins are only backed by the Ecoin’s value as a form of wealth representation and transferability. Photoshares aim be be valued by the work being performed by the network running the Photoshare.

Bitcoins are a new way to represent and send wealth. Ecoin Club is a open community of Ecoin enthusiasts, investors, businesses and researchers dedicated to improving the Ecoin community. The Ecoin revolution may be one of the most rapid and largest wealth creation and wealth redistribution events in history. Now you are part of the club. To get you started you need a Bitcoin wallet and some Bitcoins.

Bitcoin wallets

Bitcoin wallets are where your store your Bitcoins. When you send Bitcoins, the Bitcoin leaves your wallet and goes to another wallet. A Bitcoin can only be in one wallet at a time. Bitcoin wallets are generally free or come with simple registration. You can have multiple Bitcoin wallets and move all or some of your Bitcoins to various wallets. To send Bitcoins to a wallet, you enter the destination wallet address and the amount of Bitcoin that you want to send. When you submit the request your Bitcoin transfer is automatically processed and verified by the computers that are mining for Bitcoins. With Bitcoins, the wallet to hold the Bitcoins and way to processing payment with Bitcoins is almost free. You can have both offline Bitcoin wallets and online Bitcoin wallets. It is best to have at least one of each to start.

Start by downloading your free offline Bitcoin wallet. This wallet will remain on your computer and will not be available through a website unless you access your computer remotely with a program like Logmein. It is best practice to backup your offline Bitcoin wallet with another offline backup (or two) as well as an encrypted online service like dropbox, carbonite etc. As of now, Apple does not allow any Bitcoin wallets on the Iphone. If you are running an Andriod phone you can install a mobile Bitcoin wallet. Once you download your offline Bitcoin wallet it will take sometime for your new wallet to update all the information from the Bitcoin network before it is ready for use.

Just because Apple does not have a Bitcoin wallet app it does not mean that you can not access your Bitcoin wallet from your Iphone or any smart phone. If your phone has a web browser, you can access your offline Bitcoin wallet.There are many online Bitcoin wallet options. Bitcoin exchanges provide wallets as well as service like Blockchain.info. We recommend getting started with Localbitcoins.com.

Get Bitcoins

Trading cash or credit for Bitcoins is a challenge. Services like LocalBitcoins and Coinbase allow you to do a bank transfer for Bitcoins. This is sometime difficult because of the steps required to get the money to the service. This is an unfortunate hurdle for you to get started with Bitcoins. Ecoin Club is a community of Ecoin enthusiasts, investors, businesses and researchers dedicated to improving the Bitcoin and Ecoin community. We work together to find great opportunities with Ecoins. This includes trading Ecoins within the community for goods, services and other assets.

To get you started with Bitcoins, we will send you .005 Bitcoins for $10 through Paypal. We think that this is the best and easiest way for you to get going with Bitcoins. We also think that is best to make your first transaction with Bitcoins a small transaction. Starting with .005 Bitcoins is the ideal amount for you to learn how to transfer Bitcoins and how to use Bitcoins for transactions. After this initial exchange we can help you build your Bitcoin and Ecoin collection. Welcome to the Club!

There are more and more Altcoins entering the Ecoin marketplace all the time. One of the big questions in the Ecoin community now is if Altcoins are a fad or have real staying power. This is obviously an unanswerable question. I believe that Altcoins do have a long-term place in the future of E-currency. The web is all about long tail and customization. Most new Ecoins have a unique feature that makes them different than other coins.

Altcoins may be the long tail of currency.

Namecoin has unique features in the blockchain. Quarkcoins have a unique feature for inflation. Infinitecoins have a unique feature to keep transaction costs low. Mastercoins are designed to leverage the Bitcoin blockchain and address existing Ecoin issues with security and refunds, as well as offer the ability to make your own Ecoin. Also Altcoins already represent a significant market share of all Ecoins which means people are following them and trading their Bitcoins and Fiat for Altcoins. For now I am constantly researching and acquiring Altcoins. I like to spend some time reading up on the features of the new Ecoins and trying to pick out the most interesting. A question I typically ask is “what about this Ecoin makes it unique?” and “does that unique feature seem to be something that will excite the market and community?”

Monitor Bitcoin Talk Forum

Most Ecoins start as a developer project and are announced in popular Ecoin forums. Recently new Ecoins start with a fundraising campaign that typically involves first adopters getting to trade existing coins (Typically BTC) for the new Ecoins at a better exchange rate than will be available when the new Ecoin starts trading. Examples of this are Mastercoin and Netcoin. If you want access to these early Ecoin opportunities, monitor the Bitcointalk Forum for new release announcements and insight.

Review Cryptocoin Charts

After an Ecoin gains momentum, it will start to be traded on an Ecoin Exchange. I spend time monitoring these exchanges for new Ecoin exchange match up. One of my favorite tools is Cryptocoin charts. These charts are an easy way to see which Ecoins are trading and the Ecoin’s recent momentum. Typically you will see at least one or two Ecoins that are making big moves (over 25%+ in the last 24 hours).

Pick your favorite Ecoins

It is very difficult to pick which one of these movers is going to break out. We typically exchange our LTC or BTC for four or more of these movers at once. This seems to increase the likelihood that we will pick the fast mover of the week. Last week, we picked Devcoins which moved up about 200% on the week.

“What’s in a Name …coin?

Namecoin is a peer to peer Ecoin based on Bitcoin. Unlike some other Bitcoin derived Ecoins, Namecoin has its own unique block chain. Namecoin’s unique blockchain features are what makes Namecoin a unique Ecoin. The coin gets its name from the fact that the holder of a Namecoin get to custom write fields in the Namecoin public blockchain.

Every Namecoin is yours to write.

The unique Namecoin feature, having a unique name for each transaction, greatly increased the anonymity and security of Namecoins. The Namecoin blockchain is a a public spreadsheet that stores data on every Namecoin transaction in the blockchain. There are a few extra columns for data in the Namecoin blockchain. When you receive a Namecoin you get to put custom information or data in the row that is dedicated in the blockchain to your Namecoin transaction. While this ledger is publically readable, only the Namecoin owner can write to this row in the table.

When you acquire a Name coin you get to fill a row in the table with whatever information you want. Some of the most common insertions are encrypted data, a domain name pointing to an ip addresses, a name or an openid addresses. You can put anything you want in there as long as it fits the field parameters. Any application that wants the information just has to read the spreadsheet. However, only the owner of that row can adjust the values of their row. To write to the row, the name coin holder provides their encrypted Namecoin wallet to prove ownership.

Namecoin transactions include two small fees, a network fee and a transaction fee. The network fee is used to ‘pay’ for the unique name for the transaction. The Namecoin network fee is set to drop as more Namecoins enter circulation. Right now it costs 0.02 for new .bit domain and lasts for 175 days. Then you have to update for 0.005. The transaction fee is variable depending on how fast you need the transaction to execute. The transaction fee ranges from 0 to .01 NMC.

Devoin (DVC) is a peer to peer cyrptocurrency. Devcoin has recently gained momentum in the Ecoin community. Devcoin(DVC) has been around for awhile. DVC started trading back in July. It has remained relatively stable. Recently when it began to spike in volume and value. There has recently been chatter about this coin in the forums and message board. Some tweets have reported that Devcoin is picking up momentum n Brazil which is leading to larger adoption from developers (the developer community is estimated at over 100 now), miners and consumers. For additional information about acquiring Devcoins submit your email below.

Mastercoin is an open source Ecoin being developed by the Bitcoin community. Mastercoin is not your typical new ecoin. It is different than Litecoin, Infintecoin etc. It does not have its own blockchain. Instead it leverages the existing Bitcoin block chain and adds new services on top of Bitcoin. Mastercoin is still very much in the initial development stage. Once fully implemented, Mastercoins will allow for extremely small transactions at no or little transaction costs, allow user to create their own coins, and create a tools for refunds and cancellations.

Mastercoin allows for extremely small transactions

Right now, Bitcoin transaction costs $.10 at a $1000 Bitcoin value. This makes small purchases almost impossible with Bitcoins. Mastercoin is designed to piggyback on the Bitcoin blockchain and allow small transaction to process for free or a very small fee.

Mastercoin is a long tail Ecoin platform

The Mastercoin software will allow anyone – neighborhoods, business, charities, schools etc. to create their own ecoins that use the Bitcoin protocol and are tied to Bitcoin value. The software implementing Mastercoins will contain simple tools which will allow anyone to design and release their own currency with their own rules (without doing software development). Mastercoin could do for currency, what WordPress did for websites.

Mastercoin has a special features to secure your Ecoins.

Mastercoin has a special feature referred to as the savings/guardian model. This is basically a saving wallet and a guardian key. If your Mastercoin wallet gets hacked, or the key to your guardian address gets lost or destroyed, the coins can still be recovered. Right now, if your Bitcoin wallet gets hacked or if you lose access to the wallet, your Bitcoins are lost. Mastercoin allows for reversible transactions. Transfers can be reversed for one year. One scenario where this could become valuable is for estate planning. You simply give your heir(s) a paper copy to the private key of your savings address, but you keep the guardian address key to yourself. If you die, your heirs can transfer the funds out of your savings (they will have to wait for the reversibility period to pass), but they can’t steal from you while you are alive since you are the only one with the key to the guardian address and can reverse their transaction if they try.

Mastercoin has an extremely active community which has pointed out and corrected flaws in the currency. Mastercoin, Coloredcoin and Bitshares recently formed a industry foundation to advocate for the continued free operation of Ecoin protocols. Mastercoin has a current market cap of about $50,000,000 and is currently only available through private transactions. For additional information about acquiring Mastercoins submit your email below.